- | Fee schedule cluster |
|
| |
- | Fee schedule amount | Currency
[8]
| N[NNNNN].NN Total number of Australian dollars and cents. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this data element is collected for the following service activity types: centre-based long day care, family day care/in-home care, occasional care, outside school hours care, preschool service, and vacation care. |
- | Fee schedule (children's service centre-based long day care) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Daily fee for child aged under 2 years | 2 | Daily fee for child aged 2 years and over | 3 | Weekly fee for child aged under 2 years | 4 | Weekly fee for child aged 2 years and over | 5 | No fee |
| |
- | Fee schedule (children's service family day/in-home care) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Hourly, standard fee for child aged under 2 years | 2 | Hourly, standard fee for child aged 2 years or over | 3 | Hourly, non-standard fee for a child aged under 2 years | 4 | Hourly, non-standard fee for child aged 2 years or over | 5 | No fee |
| |
- | Fee schedule (children's service occasional care) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Hourly fee for child aged under 1 year | 2 | Hourly fee for child aged 1 year | 3 | Hourly fee for child aged 2 years | 4 | Hourly fee for child aged 3 years | 5 | Hourly fee for child aged 4 years | 6 | Hourly fee for child aged 5-12 years | 7 | No fee |
| |
- | Fee schedule (children's service outside school hours care) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Before school session fee for each child | 2 | After school session fee for each child | 3 | No fee |
| |
- | Fee schedule (children's service preschool service) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Daily fee for child aged 3 years | 2 | Daily fee for child aged 4 or 5 years | 3 | Sessional fee for child aged 3 years | 4 | Sessional fee for child aged 4 or 5 years | 5 | Term fee for child aged 3 years | 6 | Term fee for child aged 4 or 5 years | 7 | No fee |
| |
- | Fee schedule (children's service vacation care) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Daily fee for child aged 4 years | 2 | Daily fee for child aged 5-12 years | 3 | No fee |
| |
- | Service activity type (children's service) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Centre-based long day care | 2 | Occasional care | 3 | Outside school hours care | 4 | Vacation care | 5 | Family day care | 6 | In-home care | 7 | Preschool | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| |
- | Service accessibility cluster |
|
| |
- | Session end time | Date/Time
[4]
| hhmm
A valid time measured as hours and minutes using a 24 hour clock. | DSS specific information: In the Children's services NMDS, this data element refers to the finish time of each session that a child care or preschool service is available for children to use on each day in the collection week. Note: This question records responses to ‘Days of operation – per week’ and ‘Start time of sessions’. Question: For each day of the week on which you provided child care or preschool activities in the collection week, please indicate start and finish times of each session. For family day care and in-home care services this question should be asked of caregivers only and asked in the following way: ‘For each day of the week on which you provided family day care/in-home care activities, please indicate the earliest time of day and the latest time of day that you were available to care for children.’ Provision should be made for an ‘available for overnight care’ box. Provision should be made for recording of service provision times in the morning and afternoon, to allow for services that do not operate continuously throughout the day. Provision should be made for mobile children’s services so that each day should be broken into 3 possible session times. For mobile children’s services this question should be asked in conjunction with service address for each session, days of operation and the start and finish time of each session each day. CODE 999999 Not stated/inadequately described, is not to be used on primary collection forms. It is primarily for use in administrative collections when transferring data from data sets where the item has not been collected. Round to the nearest quarter of an hour. This data element does not include times when staff are working at a service but the service is not open for children to use, such as when staff are planning programs or consulting parents. Services that do not operate continuously throughout the day should record finish times for each session on each day. Mobile children’s services should record start and finish times for each session on each day. This data element may be used in conjunction with the data element ‘Start time of session’ as a measure of the availability of child care and preschool services and the appropriateness of this in meeting family needs. In addition, this data element can be used to derive the number of hours per day and hours per week a child care or preschool service is available for children to use. This data element enables the identification of sessional provision of child care and preschool services.
|
- | Session start time | Date/Time
[4]
| hhmm
A valid time measured as hours and minutes using a 24 hour clock. | DSS specific information: In the Children's services NMDS, this data element refers to the starting time of each session that a child care or preschool service is available for children to use on each day in the collection week. This data element may be used in conjunction with the data element ‘Finish time of session’ as a measure of the availability of child care and preschool services and the appropriateness of this in meeting family needs. In addition, this data element can be used to derive the number of hours per day and hours per week a child care or preschool service is available for children to use. This metadata item enables the identification of sessional provision of child care and preschool services. Round to the nearest quarter of an hour. This data element does not include times when staff are working at a service but the service is not open for children to use, such as when staff are planning programs or consulting parents. Services that do not operate continuously throughout the day should record Start times for each session held on each day. Mobile children’s services should record start times for each session on each day. Note: This question records responses to ‘Days of operation – per week’ and ‘Finish time of sessions’. Question: For each day of the week on which you provided child care or preschool activities in the collection week, please indicate start and finish times of each session. For family day care and in-home care: this question should be asked of caregivers only and asked in the following way: ‘For each day of the week on which you provided family day care/in-home care activities, please indicate the start and finish times of day when you were available to care for children.’ Provision should be made for an ‘available for overnight care’ box. Provision should be made for recording of service provision times in the morning and afternoon, to allow for services that do not operate continuously throughout the day. Provision should be made for mobile children’s services so that each day should be broken into 3 possible session times. For mobile children’s services this question should be asked in conjunction with service address for each session, days of operation and the start and finish time of each session each day. CODE 999999 Not stated/inadequately described, is not to be used on primary collection forms. It is primarily for use in administrative collections when transferring data from data sets where the item has not been collected. |
- | Day of operation | Number
[1]
| 1 | Monday | 2 | Tuesday | 3 | Wednesday | 4 | Thursday | 5 | Friday | 6 | Saturday | 7 | Sunday | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this refers to the days of the week that a child care or preschool service is available for children to use at a service in the collection week. This metadata item is an indicator of availability of child care and preschool services. The number of days per week that a service is available for children can be derived from this item. This metadata item will be used to gain a greater understanding of patterns of service delivery. It may be used in conjunction with the data elements Start time and Finish time of sessions to measure of the accessibility of child care and preschool services. This metadata item should be reported in a table, in conjunction with Start time and Finish time for each day of the week on which the service operates in the data collection week. |
- | Preschool service received indicator | Boolean
[1]
| | |
- | Number of parents of child (children's services) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Two parent | 2 | One parent | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| |
- | Postcode—Australian (person) | Number
[4]
| {NNNN} The Postcode datafile code set representing Australian postcodes as defined by Australia Post. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this data element is only relevant to children who receive in-home child care services. It refers to the child's in-home address. It is used in conjunction with the data element Suburb/town/locality name (person). |
- | Suburb/town/locality name (person) | String
[50]
| A[A(49)] A combination of alphabetic characters. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this data element is only relevant to children who receive in-home child care services. It refers to the child's in-home address. It is used in conjunction with the data element Postcode—Australian (person). |
- | Age range (employed) | Number
[2]
| 1 | 15-19 | 2 | 20-24 | 3 | 25-29 | 4 | 30-34 | 5 | 35-39 | 6 | 40-44 | 7 | 45-49 | 8 | 50-54 | 9 | 55-59 | 10 | 60-64 | 11 | 65 and over | 99 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| Conditional obligation: In the Children's Services NMDS, this item is only applicable to paid contact workers/caregivers in child care and preschool services. Only workers identified as being ‘paid’ and as being ‘primary contact workers’ or ‘other contact workers’ in should respond to this data element. DSS specific information: |
- | Education field of highest qualification (children's services) | Number
[2]
| 1 | Teaching (early childhood related) | 2 | Teaching (primary) | 3 | Teaching (other) | 4 | Children’s services | 5 | Nursing (including Mothercraft Nursing) | 6 | Other human welfare studies and services | 7 | Behavioural science | 88 | Other | 99 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| |
- | Employment related study indicator | Boolean
[1]
| 1 | Yes | 2 | No | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| Conditional obligation: This item is only applicable to paid contact workers/caregivers in child care and preschool services. Only workers identified as being ‘paid’ in the data element: Paid employment indicator AND as being ‘primary contact workers’ or ‘other contact workers’ in the data element: Work type (children's services) should respond to this data element. DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this data element refers to whether a paid contact worker is currently studying for a qualification in a children’s services related field. This item provides an indication of the number and proportion of staff who are working towards qualifications in the children’s services field. It will allow a comparison of the staffing enrolment status across different service types and worker status (age, qualification level, length of experience etc.) and may contribute to children’s services workforce policy and planning. This item is only applicable to paid contact workers/caregivers in child care and preschool services. Only workers identified as being ‘paid’ in the data element: Paid employment indicator AND as being ‘primary contact workers’ or ‘other contact workers’ in the data element: Work type (children's services) should respond to this data element. |
- | Employment type | Number
[1]
| 1 | Permanent | 2 | Fixed term contract | 3 | Casual | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| |
- | Highest level of qualification in employment field (children's services) | Number
[2]
| 1 | Post Graduate Degree | 2 | Graduate diploma or graduate certificate | 3 | Bachelor degree | 4 | Advanced diploma | 5 | Diploma | 6 | Certificate Level III or IV | 7 | Certificate Level I or II | 88 | Other education | 99 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| |
- | Hours worked by worker | String
[3]
| 999 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this item will assist in the analysis of staffing inputs and enable a comparison of the staffing requirements across different job roles and service types. It is important to include unpaid staff because of the contribution that volunteers make within many children’s services organisations. This item is asking for actual staff hours worked by all child care and preschool services’ paid and unpaid workers/caregivers, not the rostered hours or full-time equivalent workers/caregivers. Round to the nearest hour. Actual hours of work refers to time spent at work for this children’s service during the data collection week and includes: - hours actually worked, including paid and/or unpaid overtime; and/or
additional hours to those rostered; and
- time corresponding to short rest periods.
Actual hours of work does not include: - hours paid for but not worked such as paid annual leave, public holidays or paid sick leave;
- time taken in lieu or flex time;
- meal breaks; and
- time spent on travel to and from work.
Only hours worked in a service activity that is within the scope of the CS NMDS should be included. Any work undertaken by the worker in an activity that requires the parents/guardians of the children to be present should not be included. Workers who are absent for the data collection week are not included within the scope of the CS NMDS. Therefore no workers should have the total number of hours worked recorded as 000. |
- | Length of employment in current service | Number
[3]
| | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this is the number of years that the paid contact worker has been employed as a contact worker in the service in which they are currently employed. This data element provides an indication of the stability of the child care and preschool services workforce. It will enable a comparison of service/staff longevity across different variables such as worker age, qualification level and service type. The length of time a worker has been employed by the current service should be measured by totalling the number of years the worker has worked as a paid contact worker with the current service, regardless of whether this was full-time or part-time work. Absences of more than 3 months should be subtracted from the total. The total length of experience should be rounded down to completed years. So, for example, if a worker has worked 2 years and 11 months, this should be recorded as 2 years. |
- | Length of experience in industry sector | Number
[3]
| | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, the length of experience of a worker in the children’s services sector should be measured by totalling the number of years the worker has been employed to work with children in a child care or preschool service, regardless of whether this was full-time or part-time work. Absences of more than 3 months should be subtracted from the total. In the Children's services NMDS, total years is divided into the following categories: - Less than one year
- 1-2 years
- 3-4 years
- 5-9 years
- 10 years or more
The total length of experience should be rounded down to the nearest year. So, for example, if a worker has worked 2 years and 11 months, this should be recorded in the 1-2 years category. Experience gained as a paid employee of a children’s service or children’s services agency should be counted. Any time spent as a private babysitter or carer of children is not to be included. Question: How many years experience does the worker have in the children’s services sector? This item refers to all paid contact workers/caregivers in child care and preschool services. Only workers identified as being ‘paid’ in the data element: Worker/caregiver—paid/unpaid AND only those workers identified as being ‘primary contact workers’ or ‘other contact workers’ in the data element: Worker/caregiver—type of work performed should respond to this data element. Code 9 Not stated/inadequately described, is not to be used on primary collection forms. It is primarily for use in administrative collections when transferring data from data sets where the item has not been collected. This data element provides an indication of the levels of experience of the child care and preschool services workforce. It will enable a comparison of staff experience levels across different characteristics such as worker age, qualification level and service type. |
- | Paid employment indicator | Boolean
[1]
| 1 | Yes | 2 | No | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, 'Yes' includes workers who receive wages or salary. They can include contract workers or relief workers. 'No' includes workers who are not paid, but who may be receiving in-kind benefits in recognition or exchange for their work. Unpaid staff may include volunteers, unpaid work trainees, parents and family members and students on work experience. In-kind benefits such as free child care or the reimbursement of work-related expenses in full or part (for example, token payments or small gifts such as t-shirts) are not regarded as payment of salary, and people who receive these are considered to be unpaid workers. This item allows analysis of the composition of the children’s services workforce. It can contribute to resource and service planning. It is important to include unpaid staff because of the contribution that volunteers make within many children’s services organisations. |
- | Status in employment (children's services) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Employee of this service | 2 | Employee of a government agency/body (other than this service) | 3 | Employee of an agency contracted to provide staff | 4 | Employee of another organisation | 5 | Owner manager of incorporated enterprise | 6 | Owner manager of unincorporated enterprise | 7 | Self-employed worker (of unincorporated enterprise) | 8 | Contributing family worker | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| |
- | Tertiary qualification related to industry indicator | Boolean
[1]
| 1 | Yes | 2 | No | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this item is only applicable to paid contact workers/caregivers in child care and preschool services. Only workers identified as being ‘paid’ in the data element: Paid employment indicator AND as being ‘primary contact workers’ or ‘other contact workers’ in the data element: Work type (children's services) should respond to this data element. If the worker answers 'Yes' then they should provide the highest level of qualification in the employment field (Highest level of qualification in employment field) and the education field of highest qualification (Field of highest qualification in an industry sector (children's services)). 'Yes' includes only those paid contact workers who are currently enrolled in a course of study in a children’s services related field. Codes 1-8 of the Field of highest qualification in an industry sector (children's services) data item outline the range of qualifications that are considered to be ‘children’s services related’. Only workers that are studying courses that fall within the categories listed in this item should be included as ‘currently studying’. 'No' includes workers who: - have completed a course of study and are not currently undertaking another course of study; or
- have deferred from their training; or
- are currently enrolled in a course of study that is not in a specified children’s services related field; and/or
- workers who are not currently enrolled in any course of study.
This item provides an indication of the number and proportion of staff who are working towards qualifications in the children’s services field. It will allow a comparison of the staffing enrolment status across different service types and worker status (age, qualification level, length of experience etc.) and may contribute to children’s services workforce policy and planning. |
- | Type of children's service work performed | Number
[1]
| 1 | Primary contact work | 2 | Other contact work | 3 | Administration only | 4 | Other work | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| |
- | Activity and participation life area | String
[5]
| AN[NNN]
A code set representing the Activities and Participation component of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF 2001). | DSS specific information: This is used in conjunction with an indicator of the need for assistance to determine what activity and participation life area/s a child may need assistance with. |
- | Arrival time at service | Date/Time
[4]
| hhmm
A valid time measured as hours and minutes using a 24 hour clock. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this data element should be rounded to the nearest quarter of an hour. In cases where the person received overnight care, the leaving time should be recorded on the initial day as 2359 and the next day the first arrival time should be recorded as 0000. For children who are included on the data collection form, but do not attend all or some of the sessions, the reporting field should reflect the child’s non-attendance of these sessions and be filled in as 0000. Therefore, for children who ‘usually attend’, but in fact did not attend for the collection week, all attendance times should be recorded as 0000. Times should only be recorded for children who actually attended the service. Where a child does not attend continuously throughout the day, arrival and departure times should be recorded in both the morning and the afternoon. |
- | Date of birth | Date/Time
[8]
| DDMMYYYY
The day of a particular month and year. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this data element refers to the date of birth of the child attending the children’s service. |
- | Departure time from service | Date/Time
[4]
| hhmm
A valid time measured as hours and minutes using a 24 hour clock. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this data element should be rounded to the nearest quarter of an hour. In cases where the person received overnight care, the leaving time should be recorded on the initial day as 2359 and the next day the first arrival time should be recorded as 0000. For children who are included on the data collection form, but do not attend all or some of the sessions, the reporting field should reflect the child’s non-attendance of these sessions and be filled in as 0000. Therefore, for children who ‘usually attend’, but in fact did not attend for the collection week, all attendance times should be recorded as 0000. Times should only be recorded for children who actually attended the service. Where a child does not attend continuously throughout the day, arrival and departure times should be recorded in both the morning and the afternoon. |
- | Children's service worker identifier | Number
[3]
| N[NN]
A combination of up to three numeric characters that identify a children's service worker. | |
- | Indigenous status | Number
[1]
| 1 | Aboriginal but not Torres Strait Islander origin | 2 | Torres Strait Islander but not Aboriginal origin | 3 | Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin | 4 | Neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander origin | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this data element is collected twice: - for the paid contact worker/caregiver; and
- for the child attending children's services.
|
- | Labour force status | Number
[1]
| 1 | Employed | 2 | Unemployed | 3 | Not in the labour force | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this item is only applicable to the child's parent(s)/guardian(s). |
- | Letters of family name | String
[3]
| XXX A combination of alphanumeric characters. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this is a specific combination of letters selected from the child’s family name/surname to provide a child identifier within and across child care or preschool services and to assist with record linkage. |
- | Letters of given name | String
[2]
| XX A combination of alphanumeric characters. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this is a specific combination of letters selected from the child’s first given name to provide a child identifier within and across child care or preschool services and to assist with record linkage. |
- | Main language other than English spoken at home | Number
[4]
| NN{NN} The ASCL (2005) code set representing languages. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this item is applicable to the child and his/her parent(s)/guardian(s). |
- | Assistance with activities | Number
[1]
| 0 | Does not need help/supervision | 1 | Sometimes needs help/supervision | 2 | Always needs help/supervision | 3 | Unable to do this task or action, even with assistance | 8 | Not specified | 9 | Not applicable |
| DSS specific information: Record only whether the child has need for assistance or not. This is used in conjunction with the activity and partipation life area. |
- | Principal role of person (children's service) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Director / Co-ordinator / Teacher in charge | 2 | Group Leader / Teacher | 3 | Assistant / Aide | 4 | Other specific contact worker | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| |
- | School attendance indicator | Boolean
[1]
| 1 | Yes | 2 | No | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| |
- | Sex | Number
[1]
| 1 | Male | 2 | Female | 3 | Intersex or indeterminate | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| DSS specific information: This item is collected for the child attending children’s services, for the paid contact worker/caregiver in the children’s service, and the parent(s)/guardian(s) who usually reside in the same household where the child is spending most of their time during the collection week. |
- | Mobile service indicator | Boolean
[1]
| 1 | Yes | 2 | No | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this item is obtained from the register of services held by the collection agency. This data element is distinguishes mobile child care and preschool services. Code 1 Mobile Mobile children's services carry children's services to the community. They offer a range of services including occasional care, vacation care, playgroup sessions and child care, as well as other services outside the scope of this collection. Code 2 Non-mobile Non Mobile should be recorded for all other childcare and preschool services. For example, a child care centre, dedicated preschool, community centre, school, home etc. In conjunction with Service delivery setting (children's services) and Suburb/town/locality name (person), this data element supports analyses of the range of settings in which child care and preschool services are available. |
- | Number of licensed places | Number
[3]
| N[NN] The total, sum, count, or aggregate of a collection of units. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this is the maximum number of child care and preschool places licensed at a service where service activities are delivered. The number of licensed places in a child care or preschool service is equivalent to the maximum number of children allowed by regulation to attend at any one time. Licensing includes education department regulations relating to the maximum number of children per preschool class in government schools. Licensing provisions or regulations exist for many, but not all, types of child care and preschool services, and this is not uniform across the states and territories. Where licensing or regulated numbers do not apply to any of the child care or preschool services delivered at the service record 000. Question: How many places are you licensed to provide at any one time in this service? Mobile services are to be asked this question per day and session and it should be asked in conjunction with where service was provided, days of operation—per week and the start time and finish time of sessions each day. Family day care/in-home care services should be asked this question, and should respond for the whole service (rather than for an individual caregiver). Caregivers should not be asked this question. |
- | Corporation indicator | Boolean
[1]
| 1 | Yes | 2 | No | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| Conditional obligation: This item only needs to be answered by those services who nominated category 3, 4 or 5 in the Management type data element.DSS specific information: This item only needs to be answered by those services who nominated category 3, 4 or 5 in the Management type data element. The legal entity of the children’s service indicates the involvement of different market sectors in the direct delivery of children’s services. Embedded within this classification is the distinction between corporate services and other services. |
- | Main service activity type indicator | Boolean
[1]
| | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, where a 'yes' is provided, the main service activity type is reported. See Service activity type (children's services). |
- | Management type—(children's services) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Community managed | 2 | Government managed | 3 | Non-government school managed | 4 | Private-for profit | 5 | Other | 9 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| |
- | Number of available places | Number
[3]
| N[NN] The total, sum, count, or aggregate of a collection of units. | DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this is the maximum number of children to whom a service offers child care and/or preschool services at a given time. The number may vary for different times of day or sessions. In the case of family day care and in-home care, this information is should be provided for each caregiver. |
- | Service operation weeks | Number
[2]
| 90 | No regular pattern of operation through a year | 99 | Not stated/inadequately described |
| DSS specific information: In the Children's Services NMDS, this data element refers to the number of full and/or part weeks per year that a child care or preschool service is open for the provision of service(s). This data element is an indicator of availability of child care and preschool services. This data element will be used to gain a greater understanding of patterns of service delivery, in conjunction with information about the hours in the day and the days in the week in which child care or preschool activities are available at a service. New services should count the number of weeks that the service plans to operate in a full year. This question is asked of all services including family day care/in-home care services and their individual caregivers. This data element is used in conjunction with the data elements Session start time, Session finish time, and Day of operation. |
- | Children's service identifier | Number
[6]
| NNNNNN A combination of numeric characters that identify an entity. | |
- | Service delivery setting (children's services) | Number
[1]
| 1 | Centre-based—school | 2 | Centre-based—other | 3 | Home-based—child’s home | 4 | Home-based—other | 5 | General community setting |
| |